How a nine-year-old girl's death could lead to action on air pollution

Dirty air reduces life expectancy on average by 1.8 years globally and is blamed for 36,000 early deaths annually in the UK. To date no individual death has been directly linked to air pollution, but that could be about to change

by Isabella Kaminski

A 'striking association' was found between air pollution spikes in London and severe asthma attacks suffered by Ella Kissi-Debrah leading up to her death in 2013. Photograph: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images